Gigliotti - Who Was Queen Victoria?

Nothing was out of the ordinary when eighteen-year-old Princess Victoria went to bed on the evening of Monday, June 19, 1837. She fell asleep in Kensington Palace in London, in the room she shared with her mother, the Duchess of Kent. She had always shared a room with her mother. Her mother never allowed her to be alone.

At six oclock the next morning, though, Victorias world changed. She woke up to hear her mother say that two men had arrived at the palace. They wished to see Victoria.

The men were the archbishop of Canterbury and the lord chamberlain. The archbishop of Canterbury was the leader of the Church of England. The lord chamberlain was the top official in the royal household, where the king lived.

Victoria put on her dressing gown and went to her sitting room. The men came in, and the lord chamberlain knelt before her. Victoria knew what that meant: Her uncle, King William IV, had died.

Victoria extended her hand, and the lord chamberlain kissed it. The king died at twelve minutes past two oclock in the morning, the lord chamberlain said. Princess Victoria was now Queen Victoria. She was the queen of the United Kingdom.

Since it has pleased Providence to place me in this station, Victoria wrote in her journal later that night, I shall do my utmost to fulfill my duty towards my country.

Although Victoria was only eighteen, she had been preparing for her role since she was eleven years old. That was when she became the next in line to the throne.

I am very young and perhaps in many, though not in all things, inexperienced, the queen wrote, but I am sure that very few have more real goodwill and more real desire to do what is fit and right than I have.

Victoria did what she felt was fit and right for more than sixty-three years as queen. She had the longest reign of any king or queen in Britains history. She helped maintain peace and prosperity in her country, and she ruled at a time when exciting new discoveries were made in many fields. Victoria was so important to this time period that it has been named after her: the Victorian era.

Before any of that, however, one of Victorias first declarations as queen was that her bed be moved into her own room. She would not share a room with her mother any longer.

The king was dead. Long live the queen.

When Princess Victoria was seven years old, she went for long carriage rides in the countryside outside London, England, with her grandmother, who was visiting from Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld in what is now Germany. Victoria loved her grandmother and enjoyed the beautiful horses, but she didnt care to be driven around the countryside. Like many young girls, she later admitted in her journal, she preferred running about.

Victoria loved running and playing with her dog, a King Charles spaniel named Dash. Other times, she played with her doll collection. She loved dolls so much that she had more than one hundred of them! Victoria had a full schedule of schoolwork, too, and enjoyed some of her academic subjects more than others. She was fascinated by history, and excellent at learning languages.

That all may sound as if Victoria had a typical childhood. She didnt. Certainly anyone born into royalty will have a different upbringing. Victoria, however, had a particularly uncommon childhood, and it was not an especially happy one.

Victoria was born as Alexandrina Victoria in Kensington Palace in London on May 24, 1819. Her father was Prince Edward, the Duke of Kent. Her mother was Victoire, the Duchess of Kent. Sometimes the newborns family called her Drina at home, but mostly she was just Victoria.

Victoria was only eight months old when her father died unexpectedly. The duke caught a severe cold, which turned to pneumonia. He died on January 23, 1820.

Victoria grew up without a father. Her mother, the Duchess of Kent, did not remarry, but she did ask a close friend of her husbands, Sir John Conroy, to help run the household. He became a financial adviser and secretary to the duchess. Victoria did not trust Conroyand with good reason.

After her fathers death, Victorias mother made a plan with Conroy. They both hoped to keep young Victoria so dependent on them that their opinions would come to matter more than her own. Conroy wanted power. He could never be king because he was not born into the right family, but he was determined to exert great influence on Victoria.

The atmosphere in the palace was one of drama and intrigue in the early years of Victorias life. If Victorias uncle, King William IV, died before she turned eighteen, her mother would become queen regent and rule the United Kingdom on Victorias behalf. If he died after she turned eighteen, Victoria would be queen. Either way, Conroy and the duchess wanted to be in control.